I've read about plenty of problems with this antenna but I actually purchased mine used as a package deal with a few other items. Mine works great for almost a year now running just slightly over 100 watts though it. A friend of mine who has a bigger truck kept getting his 1000 and 500 smacked down and eventually broken at the base because they were simply too big decided to get a Lil Wil based on my performance. We hooked it up yesterday at a coffee break and the antenna had sky high swr's on all channels. From 26.000 to 32.000. All high. My question is this: Even if the whip was too short or too long wouldn't it have eventually come down on eithier the low or high frequencies? This thing is brand new and of course NOT returnable. Any ideas?
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Lil' Wil Wilson Problem
- Thread starter Frylock508
- Start date
Where is it mounted on the vehicle? if the base is near metal above the magnet then there may be an issue.
There should be a small amount of continuity between the center conductor and the outer shield due to this antenna being shunt fed but if there isn't any continuity then this capacitor has an open circuit due to mechanical damage or from having too much rf power passed through it.
I second the checking the PL-259 connector I bet theres a short. Anter way to check this by cheating is plug the pl-259 connector into the so-239 on the back of the radio then unscrew the outer part of the 259 coax end leaving the center conductor in th whole and seee ifthe sound gets louder or comes in when just the center pin is connnected without the outer ground part touching the threads or radio at all. If the sound jumps up then theres a short. 
I would expect the SWR to be -lower- somewhere. If it doesn't then there are two possibilities, either you just missed it, or there's something wrong with the antenna. It may not get very low, but it should get low'er.
That about not connecting the 'shell' of the PL-259 isn't exactly an indication of a short.
Doing it that way just makes the whole feed line part of the antenna. Longer/larger antenna typically means a louder signal/noise level. That happens when using any antenna. It amounts to the same thing as not having any antenna/feed line connected to the radio and you just touching that center pin of the SO-239, louder signal/noise.
- 'Doc
That about not connecting the 'shell' of the PL-259 isn't exactly an indication of a short.
Doing it that way just makes the whole feed line part of the antenna. Longer/larger antenna typically means a louder signal/noise level. That happens when using any antenna. It amounts to the same thing as not having any antenna/feed line connected to the radio and you just touching that center pin of the SO-239, louder signal/noise.
- 'Doc